Oceanic Whitetips at Elphinstone

They've been there for months and I believe this is the third season they're there. There must be hundreds of divers to see them every day, and they're very curious. They come close! One day (I wasn't there) there was an attack-like behaviour that scared some divers a bit. When the last diver in a group was getting back in the zodiac one of the sharks swam quickly towards him - fin breaking the surface and mouth open. The guide insisted the shark only wanted to play with his fins.

I've learned that these sharks are curious by nature (investigating possible food).

Then why don't the sharks at Elphinstone bite? How can you be curious for days, weeks, months and years and never have a go at it?

Oceanic Whitetips are naturally curious, but very cautious when it actually comes to munching. If you have ever seen The Silent World you will remember that the oceanic whitetips take ages to actually start feeding on the dead whale that JC's ship ran over. And I guess since Cousteau's crew then killed all the sharks they have learned to be more timid!

To be more serious, with most food items they encounter that move as slow as a diver there isn't really any rush! Of course, their natural slow-moving food items don't suddenly climb back onto zodiacs!

Jeez Alex, kick a man when he's dead will ya! I remember that show. First time I was scared of humans more than sharks...and it's stayed that way.
I've had silkies, bronze whalers and duskies disco bump me like it was going out of fashion in a hurry. A pissed off tiger did chase my dive buddy around, I guess he respected my spiderman wetsuit more than Cressi. Been in the water with at least 200 hundred sharks mulling around in feeding frenzy (of course you only see 20-30 of them at one time. Only once has a silvertip nibble at my white fins (hey I was more worried about WB than my legs ok?).
They know we are not on the menu, I just think it's their way of testing us. They don't have hands ya know!

Drew
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